>> his big break came in 1965 when peter, paul and mary recorded his song "for lovin' me." ♪ >> their manager called, said, do you want a management contract. the conservative sort of canadian i am i had to think about it for three minutes. >> he may joke about being canadian but unlike others who found success in the united states and stayed there, lightfoot returned to his homeland. a matter of pride in canada where he even wound up on a postage stamp. >> we have a lot of common values. but we're different. we are different. there's lots of ways of defining that difference, one of them is in gordon lightfoot. >> good evening, i'm peter mansbridge. >> the eveningsc newast. >> lightfoot talks about his country. and about us. >> no lightfoot song is more canadian than the canadian railroad trilogy, it was commissioned to celebrate canada's centennial year 1967. ♪ >> i don't think it's any overstatement to suggest that for a lot of canadians it's kind of the unofficial anthem. we love "o, canada" we love seeing the flag raised when we meet the americans in the gold medal game in hocke